I'm looking for some ideas & suggestions. My group is about to undertake some delving in the ruins of the Emerald Palace in Syrtis Major...got anything I can adapt / steal that's better than say...taking a free, One Page Dungeon and filing off the numbers?

Won't do it as a "classical dungeon", because the ruins are too large. The ruins are a imposing structure about 1x0.75 miles, made of pale green Meroe limestone, hence its name. It has a lot of levels, above and especially below ground.

If you don't want to start one of those Big Dungeon Projects, i would do it in a more simplistic way.

Here is how i would do it...

First develop a series of up to a dozen important locations your heroes have to explore. Depending of the size of this dungeoneering endeavour you planned, 5-6 would do just fine. They may be linked to one another (storywise, not on the map) or independent. I would design both types just to give the players some "false trails".

Then develop a like number of typical locations, like storage rooms, kitchens, lounges etc.

Now design a table with card values and colors of your deck. Assign each of the above to the values. Face cards are the important locations, which will be found only once. Then the typical locations, which may be found more then once and more often. Add a few encounters with other creatures or troops. Finally put the hazards to the 2. A Joker could be something VERY special, the Big Boss room or just two encounters at once.

Draw a card every 30 min or so. Calculate the distance traveled by the core rules.

Of course all important locations get detailed maps. Typical locations would only be improvised or you could design "general maps" for them, were you add a few special details via tiles.

This way every trip into the ruins gets a different experience, especially if you assign a few new rooms on upcoming trips. You could even recycle the material for other bigger ruins, just with a few adjustments..._________________High Sage of Hoenir & Scribe of Qedeshet

Thanks! It's a good idea. I've still got a couple of days before the game. I'm going to have to have one area fairly detailed. The group found a secret passage in the first strata of the ruins while on something I intended as a filler adventure. Now they're trying to find out why some canal Martians were trying to excavate there. =)_________________>WBM
bryan.mullins
NoFairFights

I think you need some story to uncover, some people living there, anything. Only crawling trough the ruins get boring.

The way Enno describe it is a cool way, the adventure for Daring tales of... and Hellfrost make great use of such card draw based tables.

One problem with such a card draw based table is that it works better if you need to find something. A special room, A special enemy. You could gather search tokens, that symbolize the knowledge of the ruins. For example, each face card could give one token. A dangerous way should give more tokens.
So you have some reason, some goal to explore the ruins.

Sometimes this token gathering is connected to a assisted smart roll of the leader. Each succes and raise gives a token. Or allows to draw more cards.

Maybe there are different goals. Maybe some of the card draws could give away some new goals. ("This records tell of a potion that allows to breath on the ground of the canals, for repairs. It seems it get crafted in a labor on the lower levels"). Maybe you could have different token stacks connected to the suit of cards.

Thanks for the imput! I thought about it, and for the adventure down this side passage I went with a quick 5-room dungeon, and filled it with Cult of the Worm / Cosmic Horror flavors. The party discovered an abomination, killed it with fire etc. Seemed like a good time was had.

Enno, do you just know this setting by heart? I've been trying to find the time to read through the old GDW pdf's I bought, but its...just well...not fun. I find that the SW book is good for a nudge, but its obviously designed to feed into existing material. Is there a good way to become more familiar with all this material without simply reading every last one of these books? Maybe a quick reference or something?

Is there a good way to become more familiar with all this material without simply reading every last one of these books? Maybe a quick reference or something?

Another source is the old Noisemaker Space 1889 Audio Drama's if you can find them ... I'm still looking for "The Red Devils". I enjoyed listening to all of them, including, despite the reviews, the final one that takes place on the moon._________________My delusions of grandeur are way bigger than yours!